Time’s 2008 Person of the Year

The image of Obama’s hope poster that appears on Time magazine’s person of the year contains many concepts such as; patriotism, hope, coalition, and progressiveness in terms of “our” first black president. What Time magazine is selling to its viewer are the emotions of the iconic “Hope” poster. The cover though, appears without the word “hope”, which so commonly is attached to all of the, now, Obama memorabilia. However the expression on his face still seems to connote this meaning. The background of the image depicts issues that Obama will deal with in the future, and the lack of text on the cover suggests these are the issues that will be addressed in the article. This image can persuade the audience for a variety of reasons; the popularity of the image before he was elected, his popularity as a person, and the hopeful patriotic image may persuade his non-supporters to read more about him.